Hot Topics:

Jeffco nonprofit helping Lakewood bees by eliminating pesticide use

By Austin BriggsYourHub Reporter

Posted:
03/20/2014 12:01:00 AM MDT

Updated:
03/24/2014 11:08:19 AM MDT

Bees swarm around the opening of their hive in the backyard of Jan Coffelt's home in Lakewood on March 14. The Living Systems Institute is working to eliminate the use of backyard pesticides by educating the community on the effects they have on bees through a program called Bee Safe Neighborhoods. (Seth McConnell, YourHub)

LAKEWOOD —Beekeepers and residents are getting advice on how to keep bees healthy in their neighborhoods.

"Bees are a vital part of the natural environment and will perform pollinating services for us if we don't kill them," said David Braden, president of a nonprofit group that is trying to spread the word that pesticides can be a problem for bees.

Living Systems Institute and Honeybee Keep is working with Lakewood residents by holding educational workshops and encouraging them to have their neighbors pledge not to use pesticides and insecticides linked to declining bee populations.

The group's goal is to create Bee Safe Neighborhoods where 75 houses in a contiguous zone are not using the pesticides.

At a presentation March 6 in Edgewater, Braden talked about the idea to leaders from Lakewood's Eiber neighborhood.

"We have a lot of people in our neighborhood gardening, some have chickens and a few are beekeepers," said Eiber community leader Carrie Sonneborn. "We're hoping to take this up as one of our projects for the year."

Advertisement

The push to educate Lakewood property owners on the effects of pesticide use comes on the heels of the city rewriting sections of its zoning code last year, a move that opened up and regulated backyard farming. In addition to allowing goats, chickens and expanded backyard farming choices, the city also allowed more opportunities for beehives in residential areas.

The backyard hobby has subsequently flourished, with seemingly every block sporting a few backyard hives.

Braden talked about which insecticides local property owners can quit using to help native pollinators and backyard bees thrive in the metro area.

"Neonicotinoids are systemic poisons because they actually become part of the plant," Braden said. "Anything that eats part of the plant, including the nectar and pollen, becomes affected by it. Those are the ones we're trying to educate people about."

He added that his organization will also help owners buy and install swarm traps, a box that provides bee swarms an ideal nesting place when they split in half every spring. The swarms are then captured and incorporated into controlled hives.

Bee enthusiast Jan Coffelt said she has kept two hives in her backyard for six years.

"It's very ambitious, but wonderful if they can do it," Coffelt said of the campaign to eliminate backyard pesticide use. "People are reluctant to give up their poisons but it's going to have to happen, or 30 percent of our food sources would be gone if bees weren't around anymore."

One-day event to run slide down University HillIt's not quite the alternative mode of transportation that Boulder's used to, but, for one day this summer, residents will be able to traverse several city blocks atop inflatable tubes.